Christians should be vegetarians
“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread." Matthew 6:9-11
Recently, Mrs. Expat Teacher has become very interested in the food we eat around our house. Part of her reasoning is that we are God's temple and why construct His temple with inferior materials? We've been thinking a lot about how we spend our money and who does it support? Supermarkets like Tesco, who made £2,000,000,000 profit this year, or the farmer who has such a hard enough time making it that Europe subsidizes each cow to the tune of $2 a day.
Out of this thinking has come the idea that in heaven we will all be vegetarians (if we need to eat at all, see Expat Teacher 2.0 for explanation). According to Romans 6:23 death did not come into the world until Adam sinned. Since there will be no sin in heaven, there will be no death. Without death we can't kill. If we can't kill we won't need our predatory instincts. In fact, we get a glimpse of this new diet in Isaiah. In chapter 11 and 65, Isaiah is speaking of the coming of God's kingdom and references predators that are no longer feasting on their prey. In 65:25-26, the Lord says this about heaven,
"The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD .
Blood thirsty carnivores like the wolf, lion and serpent are reduced to eating only herbs. Pretty clearly heaven is a vegetarian's delight.
As Christians, how now shall we live? I started this post with a section of the Lord's prayer. We pray that God's kingdom gets done on earth as it is in heaven. We then ask for bread. Should Christians adopt a vegetarian lifestyle to emulate God's kingdom in heaven? Should we only be asking for a bun and no burger? With all the myraid choices available healthy living without killing something IS possible, but should we? Are we up for it? Americans let Dr. Phil, Dr. Atkins and the South Beach guy take control of their diets. Are we willing to let Jesus take control of ours if he wants it?
posted by Expat Teacher @ 7:00 AM
